Tease
by genuinely maverick
Summary: Spending the night at a male strip club isn't exactly how Lucy thought this night would pan out. But life is full of surprises.
1. Chapter 1

Spending the night at a male strip club isn't exactly how Lucy thought this night would pan out. But life is full of surprises.

She sits in the corner trying not to attract attention to herself, sipping on a cup of room temperature soda and feeling so out of place that she has to stop herself from getting up and walking out about a hundred times. Her friends seem to be having a good time, though, so she'd hate to spoil their fun. She'll just have to grin and bear it - for a little longer, at least.

Jessie comes back from a pit stop at the bar with a drink that looks fruity and very heavy in alcoholic content and shoves it into Lucy's spare hand. She nearly dumps her 7up all over herself. "Drink up, birthday girl," Jessie coos with a wide cheshire grin.

Lucy hesitates before placing both glasses on the table in front of her gently, "Sorry, I don't drink," she says with an apologetic smile.

"What, not interested because it's legal now?" Megan asks, coming up behind her to wrap her arms around Lucy's shoulders, " 'Cause I totally get that."

Lucy shrugs. They both reek of alcohol and a part of her is hoping that they get too drunk to function so she'll have an excuse to get out of here.

Sarah, the final member of the group out tonight arrives with a man in tow. A man with pink hair. A man with pink hair and very little in the way of clothing. "Lucy, this is Natsu. Natsu's gonna dance for you."

Lucy tenses, a blush crawling up her cheeks, "Um, no, I think that's alright," she says, scrambling to get out of her seat.

Jessie rests a hand on her shoulder, "Calm down Lu, I'm sure he doesn't bite."

The man with pink hair puts on a wolfish smirk. He winks, " _That_ costs extra."

"I'm not really comfortable with..." Lucy begins, but the words are lost beneath the pounding music and the gears are in motion. Jessie's hand is heavy on her shoulder and ' _Natsu_ ' has one wickedly warm palm on her thigh and the other on his, well...

Lucy flushes all the way down to her toes. Natsu curves in closer, his face even with her's, bare chest almost touching her. She can smell his cologne, muted by sweat and the the musk of the club. She meets his eyes, dark like black holes, like the emptiest parts of the universe, and her panicked gaze is met with confusion. Suddenly it's all too much.

She shoves him off. "I have to go," she gasps out in a rush. She sprints for the door, leaving behind three shocked friends and a flabbergasted stripper.

Definitely not how she expected the night to go.

* * *

Sarah, Megan and Jessie have called her at least ten times. More than once as a group. Lucy's inbox is full of messages asking why she bailed and busting out baffled apologies. Lucy knows they mean well, and she feels so awful for ignoring them. But she needs some time away. A second to catch her breath.

She heads to work in a daze

It's a slow night. Tuesdays usually are. Lucy is pretty content with just staring off into space until _Natsu_ , the stripper with the pink hair walks through the door. He spots her at the bar and heads over. Lucy pays extra care to the glass she's shining, resolutely avoiding eye contact.

"About the other night..." Natsu begins, slipping onto a stool in front of her counter.

"What about it?"

"I'm sorry if I scared you, or something. I'm not real used to... whatever that was."

"Discomfort?" Lucy offers, still shinning her glass.

Natsu grunts. "Yeah. That."

Lucy trades the clean glass for another. She squeezes her rag, trying to dispel some of her shakiness before going through the motions again, "Well, don't worry. That was just my friends messing with me a little."

"You have some pretty crappy friends," he says, running a hand through his pastel locks.

"They're alright," she returns defensive and quiet, "They don't mean any harm."

"Well, I'm sorry anyway..."

She looks up for the first time and offers him a small, uneasy smile, "Thanks, then." It's not his fault she freaked out, anyway. That's probably never happened to him before. She appreciates the apology, anyway.

"So are you like that with all guys, or just the ones about to take their clothes off?" he asks. She starts, but quickly centers herself and goes back to polishing with vigor. He waves away the thought, "Sorry. Personal. I get it."

They sit in silence for a moment after that, and she feels his eyes glued to her the entire time. Somehow, his scrutiny feels more like a simple nuisance than a threat. She wonders if he's really as harmless as he seems.

"Why don't you drink?" he asks, breaking her out of her trance.

She frowns. She hates that question. More often than not she ends up giving some noncommittal nonsense answer. "Why do you?"

He gives her an odd look, somewhere between curious and accusing, and ignores her counter, "Why's the girl who doesn't drink bar tending, anyway?"

"I need money. And it's something to do, I guess."

"Pretty odd hobby," he says. It feels a bit like an accusation the way he says it.

"So is stripping," she snaps back with unintentional ire.

He cocks his head and frowns at her with eyes squinted in concentration in one of the stupidest expressions she's ever seen, and Lucy thinks he's definitely more nuisance than threat. Finally he sits up right and a slow smile spreads over his face and it looks like he's come to some sort of decision. "It's somethin' to do."

She almost smiles at that. Almost.

* * *

He's back the next and he's got a girl with him. She is pretty and small in a way Lucy has never been and she feels a pang of envy upon seeing her enter that is quickly dispersed as Natsu comes in after her. They are quite the spectacle with blue and pink hair.

"Lucy!" Natsu greets, he grabs the little woman's wrist and pulls her over to the bar, "This is Levy. She's nicer than your mean friends."

Levy smiles sheepishly, "I assume I don't have to apologize for his behavior?"

"Not unless you're dying to."

Natsu grins, looking happily between the two of them, "Well, now that that's all taken care of, I have to be going."

Levy gives a little wave as he turns to leave. She slips onto a bar stool she has to jump a bit to get to. Even then she's still a bit shorter than Lucy. "Would it be cruel to ask you to make me a martini?" she says, smiling sheepishly, "It's been a long day."

Lucy smiles back in response, and starts fixing the drink. "Work trouble or boy trouble?" she wonders.

Levy groans, slumping forward onto the counter, " _Both_. It's like herding cats. I can't get those idiots to do _anything_ ," Lucy pushes her drink towards her and she sighs gratefully as she takes a sip, "And Natsu is the worst. They're going to run that place into the ground, I swear." She shakes her head.

Lucy smiles sympathetically, ignoring the questions burning on her tongue. She decides not to pry. It's none of her business. None of this is.

"He likes you," Levy says, taking another sip, "He talks about you a lot."

"Too much, I'm sure," she pauses, looking down at the warped wood of her counter. Finally she looks back up, "Why is he doing all this?"

"He feels bad about making you uncomfortable," Levy grins, "and he likes you. Natsu gets very attached to the people he likes. He's a greedy hoarder. It's a bit creepy sometimes but he's harmless, really." There it is again. That word. _Harmless_. Lucy isn't so sure. Levy gulps down the rest of her dink, "Anyway, enough about that fool, lets talk about us. Hi. My name is Levy and I like books and happen to work for a lousy strip joint. What's up with you?"

* * *

The next time he comes alone. "Natsu," she begins as soon as he sits down, "I don't need any new friends. I appreciate the gesture, but really..." she shakes her head.

Natsu frowns, sitting down in front of her, "Well, what do you need, then?"

Lucy thinks about telling him the truth, about the bad things, about the things she really needs. She thinks about telling him all the things she never wanted to put on other people. But just for a moment. She starts wiping down the counter. "A cup of coffee, my next paycheck, a nice book, maybe..." she sighs, "I dunno' , a lot of things."

He comes the next night with a paper cup of instant coffee and a copy of Twilight that she doesn't spend too long trying to figure out where he got. He's trying, she thinks, admittedly a little fondly, she'll give him that much.

* * *

She's surprised when Natsu stays until closing considering his work is mostly a nighttime affair, but she supposes she really has no idea how strip clubs work and who gets off when. He waits as she answers a phone call, trying not to listen in as she whispers harshly into the receiver. She sounds furious. She hangs up the phone without saying goodbye and starts to close up the bar with jerky, angry movements. He walks her home.

She's tense and at first Natsu thinks it's because of his presence but he notices that she's jumping at every sound and every shadow and every person they pass by. She actually takes his hand eventually and grips it tight in hers. Natus tries to feel bad about her apparent issues with the dark, but she is warm beside him and he can smell her vanilla shampoo beneath the heavy musk of the bar and her tiny hand wound around his is making him a little dizzy. He wonders if the rest of her is so soft.

He asks her things, about her life, about herself. Her responses are brief and more often than not don't actually answer his question, but at least its something. It feels like progress.

There's a dark car parked outside her apartment when they get there and she pauses at the sight. She thanks him quickly and tells him he should get going.

"Who is that?" he asks, looking past her.

"No one," she assures him. She puts on a smile that is most definitely fake. He nods slowly, unconvinced, and watches as she walks away and into her building. He wonders if it's really none of his business. He decides he's going to start walking her home a lot more.

The car leaves as soon as she's inside.

* * *

Her friends stop calling and Lucy briefly considers letting them out of her life for good, but that feels a bit extreme so she calls Megan up and suggests coffee at one of their usual places. She sounds confused and nervous, but agrees nonetheless.

"I'm sorry it got out of hand," Megan tells her. She hasn't even touched her latte, "I didn't know you..."

"It's okay," Lucy says, "I'm fine, really."

Talking to her feels a bit nostalgic, and Lucy can't figure out why. Its almost like reminiscing as they discuss events that happened just a month or two ago. They spend half an hour catching up before Megan has to go. She has a a date with a guy, the third one, and she thinks there will be more to come. Megan smiles at her before leaving, and Lucy considers this the end of an era as she watches her go. She doesn't call Megan again.

She's an hour into her shift that night when Nastu comes in with a gaggle of noisy people tailing after him, and she recognizes Levy and a few strippers she'd seen once upon a time. Lucy watches them curiously for a while before returning back to her work. She thinks he's going to go with his friends, but he sits at the bar with her and watches her while she cuts the limes. Lucy considers the group again. "Who is that?" she asks, tilting her head towards the black haired giant sitting in the booth with the others, a man she'd never seen before.

"Gajeel? That's Levys fiancee," Natsu answers absently "He doesn't strip." He leans forward and takes one of her lime slices, sticking it into his mouth and sucking. He stares at the rack of tumblers behind her.

"You okay?" she wonders. She looks around the bar. The place is filling up for once. She won't have much time to mess around with him.

"Yeah," he answers quickly, "Yeah, I'm all good." He looks back at the booth with his group before turning back to her and nodding down at the line of waiting customers, "Go on. Be the bar keep extraordinaire that you are," he shoots her a grin that doesn't reach his eyes.

She moves down to the other end of the counter, keeping an eye on Natsu as she serves the crowd. A little later he flags down Mira, the other bartender, and asks for vodka. A lot of it, apparently. Too much, Lucy finds out eventually as she watches Natsu slump forward in a drunken puddle. By the time she closing up, Lucy is sure he won't make it home on his own. She decides, after a few minutes of deliberation, to take him to her place, just for the night.

She doesn't live far, but walking home with a shit faced Natsu isn't easy. He leans on her heavily, his feet dragging on the ground as he walks. She barely saves him from tripping a few times. "You owe me big time, Natsu," she mutters, mostly to herself.

He grins sloppily at her, "Come to the club and I'll make it up to you."

She doesn't respond to that and his grin falls, "You don't like it, do you. You don't like that I strip."

Lucy lets out a little sigh of relief when they reach the door to her apartment, "Doesn't matter what I like."

Natsu grunts, struggling to keep upright as Lucy hauls him inside. He seems to forget what she'd said immediately, inhaling deeply, a content sigh easing out of him. He looks around a bit, another sloppy smile coming to his face. It's a pretty apartment, filled with little comely touches. Just what he'd expected, he recognizes, even in his drunken stupor. The whole place smells like her, like vanilla and home. "It's nice here," he tells her, his speech groggy and slurred, "I like it."

He hangs heavily on her, pulling her into his arms and squeezing her with a yawn. Who knew Natsu was a sleepy drunk? He lets go of her and before she can say anything he lumbers into her room and collapses on her bed. His words are muffled by her thick comforter, "I like it here. I should come more often."

"No. No more drunkards in my home."

"If I stop drinking can I come?"

"Alright. _If_ you stop drinking, you may come over occasionally."

" 'm never gonna drink again."

Lucy is about to speak to that but stops at the sound of snores. She'll sleep on the couch, she guesses. Oh well.

* * *

Levy sinks into the barstool with a huff and Lucy starts fixing her a drink without being asked. "God, what a nightmare," she sighs, taking a big swig of the cocktail as soon as Lucy hands it to her. Lucy leans forward onto the bar, ready for Levy's onslaught of complaints.

She'd started showing up a few times a week after Natsu first brought her. She always had something to say about something going wrong with the strip club and Lucy had become fond of her long winded stories. "This move is going to kill me, I swear."

"Move?" Lucy says, frowning slightly.

Levy quickly masks her surprise, "I figured Natsu would have told you," she says, "We're moving the club to Cali. Business is real good up there."

Lucy tries her best to sound cool and collected, but she's sure Levy hears the waver in her voice, "Oh, um, I didn't know."

She nearly flinches at the look of pity Levy pays her, but the other girl quickly brushes through the awkwardness and continues down the list of Things That are Going to Kill Her (her words), and Lucy tries to be interested in the frat girls and money going missing, but she feels a little bit sick and excuses herself for the night as soon as Levy leaves.

* * *

It's her first night off in a while and she didn't really expect Natsu to be a part of it. He shows up on her doorstep anyway. It's his night off too, apparently.

"Where are you going?" he asks, considering her ready-to-leave state for a moment.

She looks at him for a second before coming to a quick decision, "Come with me?"

The grin he gives her is almost blinding, and she smiles back, leading him to her car. With him and her gear loaded in, she starts driving. He doesn't even ask where they're going.

The valley isn't very far away, but it feels like a million miles with him sitting in the passenger seat next to her. She can almost feel the antsy energy coming off him in waves. She feels a distinct lack of anxiety in bringing him with and she wonders if that's progress or regression, but decides she can't be bothered to care. It's her night off and the sky is clear and dark.

She pulls to stop on the side of the road at her spot and takes a breath before getting out. Natsu follows after her quickly, watching as she takes her telescope out from the trunk and carries it with her into the field. She picks a nice, soft looking spot on the grass and sits, stroking a hand over the golden telescope.

Natsu just watches her for a moment, surrounded by the valley and the stars. This feels sacred, he thinks, this feels like hollowed ground. Lucy moves so practiced and so carefully, like its ritual. She motions for him to sit, and he considers this moment a baptism. He feels welcomed into her world, her light. It's so, so warm beside her.

"This was my mother's favorite place," she says, but she's looking at the sky, not at him, "She wanted me to be an astronaut."

"What happened?" Natsu asks quietly.

She turns to smile at him, a little sadly, "I became a bartender instead," her voice is a whisper, a passing ghost, "but I never stopped wanting this."

Lucy keeps the telescope tucked against her chest, but doesn't touch it anymore than that. She leans back and starts pointing out constellations, her voice dreamy and far away. He listens to her, every word she says heating his entire body and he realizes, as he watches her watching the sky, he's a little bit in love.

"That big bright spot is mars," she says breathlessly, looking up with eyes glazed over in adoration. Natsu wonders if she'll ever look at him like that.

* * *

He wants to do something _normal_ , he tells her one night. He says 'normal' like the idea is something foreign and new to him. So she asks Mira to cover the rest of her shift and brings him to her house. She sits him on the couch and puts on a dumb comedy she rented last week and never got around to seeing. Natsu sinks into the cushions, watching the screen intently. He cheers internally when she sits in the middle of the couch, half a seat away from him instead of at the other end.

"This is good," he says halfway through the movie, "I like this. We should do this more."

Lucy smiles softly at him, "If you want," she tells him. She's quiet for a moment before speaking again, "It is good," she agrees, "Domestic suits you."

He grunts at that, and goes back to watching. He gets up to leave before the movie ends, and when she asks where he's going he says "work" like it's toil instead of the wild party she thinks of it as. She listens to his footsteps until they're gone and then forces herself to finish watching. She still has no idea how it ends.

* * *

She doesn't see him for a few days. It feels like something's wrong as she goes through her daily routine without his lunacy to liven things up. She goes to sleep wondering if he moved without telling her and wakes up at the sound of her door slamming. She could have sworn she locked it.

Lucy climbs out of bed still half asleep but terrified nonetheless, only to find Natsu pacing in her living room. Suddenly all she feels is anger. "Natsu what the hell?" she hisses. She flicks on the lights and gasps at the sight of him. His clothes and covered in dirt and his face is bruised and freckled with a smattering of tiny, mending cuts. "What happened to you?" she asks, a bit more gently, coming over to prod at his healing wounds. He grabs her wrists to stop her, but keeps her hands suspended in the space between them.

"Fight," he grunts out.

"With what, a bear?"

He drops her hands and steps back, pointedly not looking at her. She places her hands on her hips. "When?"

"Wednesday."

She looks at him as he starts pacing again, like a caged animal. She sighs and lowers herself onto the armrest of her couch. All the ire has drained out of her. She's half asleep again. "So what have you been doing for the past three days then?"

"Packing."

That hits her hard, and she tries to be subtle as she wraps her arms around herself protectively. He looks at her when she doesn't respond. "I didn't tell you because I wasn't so sure," he says. He comes to stand beside her, looking down as she curls further into herself. Sure of what, she wonders. When he speaks again, its only a whisper, "Come with me."

"No," she says just as softly. She can see he's about to argue so she continues, "Is this really who you want to be, Natsu? Is this how you want to keep living?" she scrubs a hand over her eyes, feeling the weight of the last few days collapse on top of her, "It's not what I want."

He frowns at her, his dark pin her down and she feels like she's staring into empty galaxies. It's suffocating. He's an abyss. "This isn't- I'm not," he runs a hand through his hair, takes a deep, ragged breath, "And what _do_ you want, Lucy? Not a dirty old one horse bar," his face is pleading, "What about the stars, Lucy?"

She stands and shakes her head at him, and he feels her disapproval like a dagger in his chest. She turns and starts walking back towards her bedroom. "Do what you want then, Natsu," she says without looks back, "But I can't keep up with this."

She's not sure when he leaves that night, but he's not there when she wakes up and she is filled with the sensation that something is _wrong_ again. She's becoming disgustingly intimate with the feeling.

* * *

 **AN: Welcome back for another hot mess story. A stripper au loosely based on Magic Mike because I'm a total dork who likes bad movies. There should only be one or two more chapters for this, but the rating will most definitely go up. Reviews are love. Thank you reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

Lucy comes home to a brick through her window, which she didn't think happened in real life. It gets the point across just fine, though. She doesn't need to read the letter. She knows things are about to get a lot worse.

* * *

"What do you mean you haven't found a place yet?" Levy snaps, looking up from her book. The club is almost empty, save for a few drunken stragglers. The ceiling lights are on so Levy can do her calculations without losing whats left of her dwindling eyesight. Natsu always thought the place looked dank and dirty without the cover of the dark and the tinted lights.

He shrugs, and avoids pouting. Levy was usually fun, even if he didn't understand her references and her fiance is a monster. The stress of moving seemed to have killed Fun Levy. Natsu silently mourns.

"We're leaving in a _week_ , Natsu," Levy reminds him, peering over the rims of her glasses, "Where are you going to stay?"

He shrugs again before turning around and making for the locker room. He nearly winces as Levy shouts at him, "You are _not_ sleeping at the club again."

"I'll figure somethin' out," he throws over his shoulder.

* * *

Levy stomps into the bar, throws her hands up as she slips onto the stool in front of Lucy, "Oh my god. He's impossible."

Lucy waits for her to elaborate.

" _Natsu_ ," Levy says, rolling her eyes when the other girl doesn't agree, "He's been so stubborn about everything lately. All he does is pout. Did you know he hasn't even found a place in CA yet. We're leaving on friday. What is he doing."

Lucy doesn't respond. She has nothing to say about Natsu. She's certain the feeling is mutual. Levy rests her forehead on the counter and Lucy tries to quash the straining sensation in her chest. Her decision was already made. Natsu was moving (in the loosest sense of the word, according to Levy) and reconciliation is lost in the transition.

"I just don't understand. He's acting like a petulant little child. Even more so than usual." Levy sighs, considering her woes for a moment. She peeks up at Lucy through her bangs, testing the silence between them. Lucy doesn't look up and Levy's bottom lip drops just the slightest bit, "Oh," she says, " _That's_ why."

Lucy resists reaching a hand up to feel around her face for what betrayed the events of last week _so_ _blatantly_. She puts on a scowl, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Levy shrugs, and Lucy sees she's fighting down a smile, "Nothing at all, my dear Lucile."

Lucy decidedly _lets it go_ , but she doesn't miss when Levy mutters under her breath, "Petulant children."

* * *

She doesn't go in for work. It's Wednesday and the bar closes early anyway. She sits at home, staring out the window up at the few little stars she can see, feeling like the heroine in some trashy romance novel. She doesn't understand why everything has to be such a catastropheall the time. Her life wasn't always some great tragedy. She wonders where she went wrong.

Immediately (and _slightly_ unjustified), her mind jumps to a certain pink haired idiot. But the mistake wasn't inviting him in, and it wasn't keeping him. No, keeping him was one of the best things she's ever done.

So there's only one thing to do.

She's out the door in thirty seconds, not waiting to second guess her decision, but she doesn't make it very far. It seems someone had the same idea.

"Natsu..." Lucy says, still crumpled on the ground where she tripped over his seated form. He looks down at her with wide eyes, rolling onto his knees, reaching out to help her back up. She swats away his hands and sits up, chin tucked as she looks him over. The bruises have healed, at least, but she notices a set of dark rings under his eyes. Those are new. "What are you doing here?"

He glances over his shoulder at her door, as if he'd forgotten where he was. "I miss you," he says.

Lucy looks at him, at his hunched form. She feels like crying and laughing. And she actually does laugh, just a choked little giggle, just because he's ridiculous and so is she but at least that's one thing they have in common, "Missed you too."

He reaches out for her hand and she presses her palm against his, gently, carefully. They share a secret smile, like they know things will get better, even if they're still a bit messed up now.

They end up in her apartment. He takes up a lot of space, but in a good way. She puts on another awful comedy. They laugh anyway. They don't talk about stripping or the bar. No one mentions the stars. They sit on her couch in the dark, until the movie gets boring and they start telling their own stories instead, until it's three am and they're both falling asleep, until it's morning and they wake up, pressed against each other with cotton mouth and stiff necks and stupid smiles.

And they heal. Slowly, but surely, they heal.

* * *

It's Thursday and Lucy is the only one working, which is just as well because the bar is empty. It seems like nothing could possibly happen until Levy comes in at eight and pulls Lucy into a hug over the counter. It's an awkward angle, but a warm and welcome embrace.

"I'll see you around," Levy says, pulling back slowly, "I'll be sure to write."

She pays Lucy a sad smile, mirrored by the other girl.

"Don't forget me when you're famous."

Levy laughs, "Could I ever forget such a pretty face?."

* * *

There hadn't been time to discuss Natsu's imminent departure. Or maybe there had been, but it was passed up in favor of topics that didn't exhaust them both emotionally. Lucy is starting to regret not bringing it up as she heads home that night. She doesn't know where she stands with the guy. She doesn't really know where she wants to.

He's there when she gets home from work, which is a lot less concerning than it should be, but little surprises her anymore when it comes to Natsu. She watches him for a while, waiting for him to speak. His fingers drum erratic beats on his thighs, his gaze trained on the hardwood floor. Finally he looks up, "Tomorrow is-"

"Moving day," she says. She wraps her arms around her stomach, grabbing her elbows, but rethinks the movement, and fists her hands at her sides, not wanting to look small. This conversation is already wearing her out, "I know. Levy already said her goodbyes, so it's your turn, I guess?"

Natsu frowns, confused, though he can't say why, "I don't want to say goodbye."

There's a beat of silence as his words stew. A nervous energy washes over the room. "What do you want, then?" she says, her voice much softer than she'd like. The question is a flash back to earlier conversation. It feels heavy in the space between them.

"...You," he says, like he's just come to the realization himself. And it makes sense. It feels like that's all he's wanted since the day he met her. And everything else suddenly seems to make sense too.

Something in her resolves at that, like a piece of her has been untangled. Lucy decides, for once, she's going to do something and not consider the consequences. It's the only thing left to do. She comes to stand directly in front of him, close, but still so, so far away. Too far. She leans in.

He inhales sharply. "Lucy what-"

"Don't talk, just... shh..." she says, tells herself that she can be brave if she tries. She wants to do this. She wants him like this.

Lucy moves her legs so she's almost straddling him, hovering just above him with her knees bent into the couch. He thinks she's going to drive him crazy.

"I really want to kiss you," he says, and it comes out like a breathy plea "Really, really."

She takes his hands and moves them so they hover over her hips, looks him in the eye for a second before letting them rest gently against the fabric of her jeans. His palms are warm, even through the material, and he looks up at her, wonderstruck and wanting.

She lifts her hands to run through his hair, scratches her nails gently against his scalp and he holds back a groan and concentrates on keeping his hands in place. "If I kiss you, will I die?" she asks, quiet, so quiet, like a sigh, like a brush of the wind.

His hands tighten, ever so slightly on her hips. He laughs, a bit, "No, but I might."

She looks up at him through the fan of her lashes and he falls silent. "Hold very still," she says, and he doesn't even breath as she drifts closer, eyes pinned to his lips. It's just a peck, light and sweet and simple, but Natsu feels like the entire world has shifted and everything is different now. And everything is better.

"See," he says as she leans back, "Wasn't so bad, right?" But his voice is strained despite the nonchalant nature of his words and his fingers twitch against her sides.

She looks down at him and instead of answering she just leans in again and this kiss is heavier, more substantial than the last one. She gauges his reactions as she presses in, harder, softer, and their eyes drift closed at the sensation. The next one is warm and wet and open mouthed and she's sitting in his lap now and doesn't even care. He pulls her closer, his hands finally leaving her hips and running up her spine, feeling, memorizing every vertebrae beneath his fingers.

And god, does he want her. This. Everything. And he is such a greedy man because he wants all of her. It burns through him as he presses her closer, closer, breathes her in and swallows the little keening noises she makes as he moves his hands over her that make him want to growl. She ends up pinned beneath him on the couch and it isn't until she turns her head away that he realizes.

She's gasping. He doesn't know if she's just out of breath or having a panic attack but he sits back so he's straddling her thighs and runs a gentle hand up and down her arm, "You okay?"

She nods. She's still catching her breath. "I think so."

He gets off her and moves to the other end of the couch. He leans back into the cushions. "Fuck," he says on the end of a sigh. She looks up, not startled, but curious. She sits up slowly, her hand on her heart. She's worried about the ways it's racing. That can't be healthy. "I'm in love with you."

"Fuck," she says in that same, resigned tone. Natsu thinks that just might be the first time he'd ever heard her swear. She laughs, "I am too."

He grins down at her with his teeth so she can see the sharp points of his canines and the look in his eyes is so reverent it makes her want to cry. Something in her chest tightens and breaks at that look and she knows she's lost something she's never going to get back. She doesn't want it back.

She falls asleep in his arms, and when she wakes up in her bed alone, she wonders if it was all just a crazy dream. The note he left on her counter assures her it was not. She starts her day feeling changed and good.

* * *

 **AN: Guess who's tired - me, it's me. So please forgive any mess ups with tense, I am a struggling little bug. Also, if it wasn't clear (because timelines are another thing I have issues with), it's friday for our little babies now. Thank you so much for reading, especially if you have come here from my other trash fics. Please review if you have the time!**


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